Improvement in folding chairs



E. A. GOULD.

Fslding-Ghairs.

Patented luly 21,1874. 7 7

' jvae 702 07. CZQQQUM .ja 40.5.4.4 er )0 y var/60L UNITED STATES EDWARD A. GOULD, OF FALMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENTIN FOLDING CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,332, dated July 21, 1874; application filed March 14,1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD A. GOULD, of Falmouth, in the county of Barnstable and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Folding Chairs; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

Folding chairs have been made'with long iron loops, secured underneath the seat and extending some distance backward, and with a front cross-bar extending through these loops, this wooden bar, as the chair is folded or unfolded, riding in these loops. But in' sucha construction not only is the wooden bar, after long usage, liable to become out and worn and weakened by its constant ohai ing on these iron tracks, but in the construction it is necessary to make and apply these extra appliances of metal, and which, if cast, are liable to be broken by a blow or shock, and in any event to get loose. In my construction 1 do not employ any such device, but so construct the seat itself, by peculiarvertical openings and flanges cut therein, as to permit the folding, and do not pass the cross-rod through any loops or eyes, and thus I avoid its being cut or worn.

The invention consists in a folding chair having a solid seat pivoted to the back frame,

said seat having therein flanged slots or grooves, into which enter from the seat-sup porting bar headed screws or pins, which hold the seat in position, and also permit its being folded.

The drawing represents a construction em-' bodying my invention.

-in which the arm is jointed by a hinge instead of by a pivot. A

a to denote the long leg and back bars, connected by the rungs and cross-bars b c d,- c e, the short leg-bars, connected by the rungs f .g, the upper one of which supports the front part of the seat h. The seat is pivoted to the bars a a, as seen at z, and tips up on said pivot when the chair is folded. The seat is a solid piece, and formed with vertical slots d therein each slot having rabbets or ledges 1, adapted to receive and to serve as supporting-guides for headed guide-pins m, which extend through each slot and are secured into the supporting cross-bar g, the heads riding on the rabbeted ledges, and being below the plane of the top surface of the seat. a a denote the arms, each of which is jointed at its t'rontend to the upper projecting end of the adjacent leg-bar e, and at its rear end is connected to the adjacent bar a by a pin, p, running through a guide-slot, q, in said bar; or, if preferred, by an eye running upon a guiderod fastened to said bar, the arms being rigid and firmly connecting the bars a e, and being firmly supported by said bars when the chair is opened.

The bottom of the slot forms a stop for the connecting-pin, or the bottom connection of the rod to the bar a stop for the sliding eye, and in either case the arm, thus rigid and affording a reliable rest, readily folds up with the other parts when they are folded together, and by the action of folding them together.

I claim A folding chair having a solid seat, in which are out the guide-slots k, provided with rabbets or flanges, as shown and described, combined with the headed guidepins m m and the fixed cross-rod, into which the pins are secured, these parts operating as shown and described.

Witnesses: EDWARD A.. GOULD.

FRANCIS GOULD, M. W. FROTHINGHAM. 

